It was around this time that news was coming out of the Red Lake,Ontario area about gold mining claims and when a wealthy America offered to grub stake, Gus, he jumped at the opportunity. No doubt thoughts of Noah Timmins success was playing in his mind.

Word of the opportunity to go prospecting for gold was immediately sent to Joe..Joe returned home as quickly as possible and began preparations to head to this place called Red Lake, Ontario. This distant place that everyone was speaking about and all were so excited to get to, to stake their claims of gold.

Now a gold rush is sometimes a cruel and unforgiving business as we learned from the California and the Klondike Gold Rushes. (Burning Daylight by Jack London) When the Klondike Gold Rush took place they said there was a dead horse for every mile. Well, the Red Lake Gold Rush of 1926 would prove to be no different. They would refer to it as the rush that had a dead dog for every mile.

Going there was a gamble, first you had to survive the test of mother nature as she threw wind, rain, snow,  ice and any other element she could think of at these explorers and  if you were one of the lucky few that made it through that treacherous country, you might strike it rich and find gold.

No Gold rusher would ever walk away from a Gold Rush without having learnt the true value of friendship and camaraderie. People like Jacque St. Paul and his brother Clem. A strong bond would form between these men that would leave future generations believing that there was a family connection somewhere.The union between these men when witnessed by others was so strong and close, one had to conclude these men were brothers to the Dupont family.

In time Clem St. Paul had come up to Red Lake, Ontario with the Campbell brothers and in 1936 he would see production taking place in his Gold Shore mine.

May 1930 he would become involved with Gilbert Labine an his Eldordo find of pitchblende at Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories. This would produce one of the major Uranium mines in Canada.(Grandfather and the Bear)
 
 

Uranium was being used for x-ray and experimental purposes, that interesting material on which Marie Curie and her husband Pierre Curie had been working and at the time of the discovery there was not a great demand for the mineral. Due to the isolated location of the site it was very difficult to make a go of mining uranium. The mine would be opened, closed and re-opened and closed again numerous times.

However, D.M. Le Bourbais wrote in Metals and Men. "It is generally understood, in the mining circles that the reopening of Eldorado in 1942 was connected in some way with the second World War, but details are lacking. That such was the case became evident when effective, January 28,1941 the Government of Canada acting under war time emergency powers, expropriated 3,905,046 outstanding shares of Eldorado mining and refining at $1.35 a Share. This was just slightly above the market price  for the day, but much less than the highest that stock had reached in the past."

But wait a moment......we are again getting ahead of ourselves and our own family history. There is such a rich history to tell you about and as mentioned previously there are so many twists and turns and so many family connections to this History.

Gus and Joe would be heading up to a new adventure in Red Lake,Ontario. The time was 1926 and Joe a 20 year old man would follow his father to an area known as Pipestone Bay. Here they would try their hand at prospecting. When they arrived the area was still very isolated.

The native people,Ojibwe living around the region had seen some rather bleak times. There was the Crane clan found at the east end of Sandy Lake and the Sucker clan from the Sandy Lake/ Windy Lake area. Jack Fiddler (He Who Stands In the South Sky) leader of the Sucker clan is one of the last leaders in all of North America who has not signed a treaty with the white men. When his eldest son Robert Fiddler became leader of the clan, he signed the treaty on June 9,1910 but it was not until 1928 that we would see him choosing Sandy Lake as their reserve land.(Canadian Indian Treaties)

Trading and the fur trade had been taking place with the Hudson Bay Company for a long time before, since at least the 1790's at Post Narrows, in fact the beaver of the region had been so over trapped it  nearly led to their extinction in the area.

The First Nations people's way of life had been drastically changed in the last few generation's. "During the 1900's we never had flour to cook bannock. In fact, we did not have any of the white man's food: tea, flour, sugar or bacon. Sometimes it was a hard life for the people because the winter was bitter cold. When it is coldest, rabbits will not snare.... It is seldom we catch them.....I am hungry much of the time."....Thomas Fiddler.....Killing of The Shamen.This was the desolate life and times of the world into which Gus and Joe would arrive.

The rest of the world may have been watching with excitement as Kodak produces the first 16mm movie film,  but  for Gus and Joe there were no movies but the reality of surviving  pretty much alone in the wilderness. Their first home at Pipestone Bay would be a small tent.. No conveniences of any kind..no electricity or local grocer. They arrived by dog team and had to survive on what little they were able to haul with them but this was a gold rush, causing men to make this long journey by foot in the dead of winter over this desolate and frozen land. These brave souls came with a fierce determination and this may have been what helped them make it through.

Different from the early gold rushes in history, the style of mining had advanced tremendously. Geology, once ridiculed by the old prospectors was now accepted as the new way of mining. Since the Timmins/Hollinger claims  at Timmins and Cobalt, Ontario and LaBine's gold finds at Kirkland Lake, Ontario were based on Geology, this time would be no different and the placer mining, where the gold was mostly panned from the rivers was no longer the standard but now mining had become more sophisticated with diamond drills which allowed the prospector to see what was below the ground and inside the rock formations.

As many, if not more men would make their fortunes in the mining exploration and diamond drilling businesses as in prospecting itself. Men like Gilbert LaBine, who again future generations of the Dupont clan would wonder if this family were relatives of the Dupont/Minors, for the LaBines would connect and reconnect to the Duponts.

....please read further

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Background Music:
Goldrush
Great Canadian Tune Book

The Skedaddler
I'm dead broke, I'm dead broke, so I've nothing to lose
I've the wide world before me to live where I choose.
I'm at home in the wild woods wherever I be
Though dead broke, though dead broke, the skedaddler is free!

Though creditors curse me, I care not a straw
I heed not old Begbie, I laugh at his law.
There is game in the mountains, the rivers yield fish
And for gold I can prospect wherever I wish.

Where I fancy a spot, I my blankets unfold
And remain for a time there to prospect for gold.
And ne'er as a debtor shall I go to quod
While my keep I can make with my gun and my rod.

While I sit by my fire and my baccy I blow
I heed not the cold winds, the frost or the snow
Though alone in the mountains at least I am free
Though the ground is my bed and my roof a pine tree.

When I think on the past, I can't see I'm at fault
Though I worked like a horse, yet I ne'er made my salt.
When the prospects were blighted they stopped all my jaw
And though honest at heart, I'm nowhere an outlaw.

Yet though cleaned out and fizzled I do not despair
There's a land far from this one, I soon shall be there
And if Providence leaves me my hands and my health
The skedaddler may yet win both honour and wealth!

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